Clarity
by PepsiCola541
Summary: Annabeth Chase isn't who she used to be. Adopted into the popular crowd, she's abandoned her old ways and even her full name, wanting so badly to escape her past- a past she can't remember. Due to some problems in the world of mythology, demigods have been turned into mortals, their memories wiped- including Annabeth. But the daughter of Athena can't be fooled by mist. Can she?


The first time I ever really noticed Percy Jackson was when I rode the bus for the first time since grade school. It was a day of beginnings, really, and it was supposed to be perfect. I was going to get home at four; my hair would be perfectly straightened as it always was nowadays, and I'd put on the cutest dress, the one that Drew had bought for my seventeenth birthday. Then I'd call Jason, my hot date (but he doesn't know I think that about him; we're in the "just friends" stage) and tell him, in my sexiest voice, that I would be ready in fifteen. He'd laugh and depart from the call with a casual flirt, saying "dress up for me, Chase, I want to see your pretty face all dolled up." Then he'd drive up my driveway and we'd go eat at Sunday's, our favorite diner. Afterwards, he'd drive me home, and we'd take a walk around the neighborhood and chitchat about nothing. Well, until I'd bring up the fact that I like him, and then I'd finally ask him to Sadie Hawkins. Then he'd bite the scar on his lip in pretend thought and, instead of just saying yes, he'd lean down and we'd kiss.

The scenario seemed so perfect in my mind, but it wouldn't happen- not today, anyway. After all, I was riding the bus, and it was already after four. My hair was beginning to frizz up from everyone's sweat and the humidity of the air, the natural curl ruining the straightness I'd worked so hard to achieve this morning. To make it worse, my phone was completely dead; I'd been so worked up for my new date that I'd totally forgotten to charge it last night.

I wish I could have thought of another way to get home- catching a ride with Drew or Silena, for instance- but Drew had "stuff" to do and had left school early. And anyway, Silena was with her boyfriend all the time now, so there was hardly any time for her to fit me in. Phoneless and car-less, as I'd rode to school with Drew this morning, there was only one other option- the stinky, humid, and crowded school bus.

So there I was, sitting by the window, disappointed. My Jason-scenario kept playing through my mind, similar to a movie reel, and I was struck, suddenly, by the thought of Luke. What would he think? He and Jason were best friends, and I'd known for a while that Luke had liked me back in freshman year. But did he still like me?

Now freaking out slightly about the animosity I might create by making my move on Jason, I looked up from my fidgeting hands. We'd stopped at the bus exchange, where some of the kids switched buses. I don't know why, but I started to eye this random girl, one who sat in the seat in front of me. She had caramel corkscrews and mocha-chocolate skin, and she could have been really pretty with some makeup and the right clothes, but she instead dressed in a black pioneer-style dress. I wondered if she was a goth or something. She sure did have the facial expression for it- she looked so glum that I felt myself getting depressed by just looking at her. And the strangest thing was that no one sat by her. Kids looked at her with mingled fright and disgust, as if by just looking at her they'd have some type of disease.

It made me a little sad, to be honest, to see her alone like that. Not that I would move or try to make friends- if Drew or Silena found out that I rode the bus, let alone made friends with an outcast, they'd throw me out of their group so fast that my head would spin. And I didn't want that to happen.

Truth is, I loved feeling important, and Drew and Silena held the door open to popularity and happiness. We didn't talk about how I used to be one of those outcasts, complete with nerd glasses and frizzy curls, and one that they used to make fun of. But they changed my life. I became Anna Chase, someone worth envying. I tucked the old Annabeth Chase in a mental drawer, my younger, more insecure self hidden away.

I knew how it was to be an outcast, yes, but I also knew how to become an outcast again. So I stayed where I was, staring out the window. The bus driver opened the doors, finally, and the girl stood slowly out of her seat, gathering her things. The kids near the aisle scooted towards the windows, muttering things as she passed. Suddenly, a colorful flash fell from her messenger bag, lit up from the filtered sunlight, and a kid reached out to grab it. "No!" she protested, but the guy grabbed it and dangled the captured ruby- was that real?- from his fingertips, taunting her like a bone to a dog.

"You want this?" he said, curving his mouth down in mock sympathy. "Well, that's too bad." he cackled in her face, stuffing the gem in his pocket greedily. But she didn't just walk away, or even try to dig it out of his pants to earn it back. Instead, she simply knelt down, her knees pressing into the weathered seat, and clasped her hands together.

"Please, please," I heard her whimper. She wasn't begging for the precious stone back. It didn't even look like she was talking to the boy anymore. So who was she talking to?

The boy pushed her and she fell halfway onto the seat opposite the one the guy was sitting in, falling over other people. They squealed indignantly, not wanting to touch her. I suddenly wondered where the bus driver was when all this was happening, and when I looked up in the reflective mirror, I saw the eighty-something driver was sleeping, her forehead pressed to the wheel. A lot of help she was.

Everyone around her, suddenly, started shoving her, knocking her about like she was an unwanted rag doll. It almost looked like a dance, everyone simultaneously guffawing and shouting and laughing and pushing. At one point, tears started to stream down her face, and she kept choking out, "Please, please, no, please," but again it didn't seem like she was even in her own body anymore, talking to some higher order. She was floating above this, a raven flying in the sky, soaring upward to somewhere only she knew.

Suddenly, a sharp whistle sounded in the air, and all movement stopped. It was as if time itself had been frozen, and everyone looked for the source of the noise. At the front of the bus, someone had stepped through the doors. A guy, supposedly about my age. He was dressed in cargo shorts and an orange t-shirt with a pegasus on it, which I guessed was another fanbase of a show I didn't watch. I wasn't into that type of thing, obviously.

He stepped forward, his face deadly serious. His eyes were so intense that I thought they would melt whoever looked in them. He didn't scan the crowd; he simply pulled the girl free from the people. They didn't even protest when he did so. He guided her arm to his chest and she started sobbing into his shirt, probably because of the relief of freedom. She didn't seem to realize that he was fading, almost as if he was a hologram. I squinted. Maybe I was hallucinating or something, because he kept dissipating in thin air, being replaced by a different person... Was that a muscular gym teacher?

But what was strange to me was that I knew the guy. Something sparked in my mind in that moment, but a mental wall slammed down as I tried to find out what it was. All I remembered was his name, and I didn't know why.

When I told myself that Percy Jackson _was _really there, he turned into his regular self again. He turned to leave, an arm protectively around her as he shouldered her bag. But, when I was least expecting it, he looked at me. It was as if he'd known I was there the whole time, as if there was no one else but the girl, him, and me, but he'd just decided not to look at me.

But it was only a second, a glitch in the fabric of time, and he whipped away his gaze so quick I wondered if it had happened at all. He guided the girl down the steps, guided her all the way towards the road ahead. I watched them as they walked across the pavement together, finally fading into black dots as they got further and further away.

"That girl is so creepy," I heard a girl say. "She's so weird. Like, she's been home-schooled her whole life, but her mom, like, is completely mental, so she's, like, totally strange, too."

"I'm not afraid of her," the guy who'd stolen her jewel said. He held the ruby in his palm, staring at it in awe. "I wonder if they're rich, though- they must be if she's just carrying these around in her bag."

"It's probably cursed," the girl said, rubbing her arm as if it was freezing instead of burning up. "She's, like, cursed, you know. I wouldn't take that if I were you."

"You're so superstitious," the guy responded, dismissing her thoughts. "That's stupid. I'm going to sell this online and get a bunch of money for it."

Of course he was, the self-absorbed asshole. I listened in to other conversations, but they all ranged about the same: about the girl. Her name was Hazel Levesque; she'd dropped a bunch of jewels in the time that they'd known her. She was strange, having just turned up last year, and she always wore the same kind of thing. Most people believed she was cursed- whoever touched the gems she had would die in a matter of days.

But Hazel Levesque wasn't the thing I found the most strange at the time. It was Percy Jackson. It was the conversations surrounding me. It was how I somehow knew his name, how I vaguely knew him from somewhere, but I couldn't place him.

He wasn't in their conversations. No one mentioned Percy Jackson, the teenager in the orange, but rather a Coach Hedge. "Hedge works at Jupiter High," one guy drawled. "He's known to freak out if you only run four out of five laps. No one would dare cross that guy."

Coach Hedge?

And so, instead of calling up Jason when I got home, I sat down on my bed and thought about it, coming to this conclusion: What if I was the only one who could see him? What if he was a ghost of sorts? And why did he look at me so easily, as if he could see right through me? And what was the deal with his "transformation" between being himself and another person?

And how did I know his name? This bothered me the most.

But the thing is, I wouldn't worry about it at all. By the time I'd fall asleep, I'd forget all about Percy Jackson. He'd be erased from my mind completely.

* * *

**Hey, guys. I thought I'd give you this little random story-starter that I thought of today. It's sort of rambly... I thought of it and had to write it down, you know how it goes. Tell me your thoughts!**

**Much love, PepCo**


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